Archives

Meta

A Northern Exit for Newmarket Station?

By Matt L, on April 17th, 2012

An interesting development could be about to happen at Newmarket. Equinox Capital Group is advertising a building that is to be built over the Newmarket triangle, the air rights to which were sold off a number of years ago. Here is what they say about it:

An innovative development combining approximately 15,000m2 of commercial space 2100m2 of retail space fronting onto Broadway and 130 apartments, 88 Broadway promises to be something exceptional.

Incorporating elements of water and light into its architecture, this modern, green-star-rateable building allows for the easy flow of road, train and pedestrian traffic into and through the development.

In keeping with the overall design, the multi-level office building is filled with light and provides the perfect workplace environment. With Auckland’s continuing traffic congestion and the move to commute via public transport, 88 Broadway’s direct link to trains and buses gives it instant appeal.

From the sounds of things this would give us another exit from the Newmarket platforms which would only help to boost the northern part of Newmarket as a result of making it much more accessible. I also like how much the location to PT has been promoted and not a single mention of carparks. Lets just hope the council lets them get around those stupid parking minimums.

I would like to see more developments over our rail lines. A couple of other key places we could do it would be over Grafton Station, Around Mt Albert probably the best candidate in New Lynn.

Auckland office vacancies are declining gradually but new construction may be 12 months away . “Overall, it is a second-gear crawl out of market inactivity, with indicators improving only slowly but at least they are improving and will continue to do so throughout the rest of this year,” Colliers researcher Alan McMahon said. The overall vacancy rate sits at 9.1% in the Auckland metropolitan office market, down from 10.7% in March 2011. But the rate varies depending on precinct. The highest vacancy is in Newton at 16.4% followed by Grafton at 14.2%. Manukau and Parnell are among the lowest at about 5%.

Overall office vacancy on the city fringe is 10.4%, while the southern corridor and North Shore dropped to 6.6% and 9.2% respectively. Rents have remained the same across most areas. About 27,100sq m of office development is due to be completed this year. Some proposed developments for the next two to three years include a supermarket at Don Mckinnon Drive, Albany; offices by Location Group at the corner of Auburn and Northcroft Sts, Takapuna; ]88 Broadway, Newmarket, a 15,000sq m development proposed by TBC Equinox Private Investment; 99-107 The Strand, Parnell by TBC Dilworth Trust.

“Equinox Group is proposing a development at 88 Broadway above the triangle at the northern end of Newmarket, where the north, south and western rail tracks converge. While a resource consent application has not yet been lodged, the developer has met with the Urban Design Panel on a number of occasions. The current proposal is to build a platform six metres above the rail tracks to provide for retail, office, residential and car parking space.”

“The proposed station development (Newmarket train station) involves a large glass and steel framed concourse structure adjacent to a station square, two island platforms serving three tracks and the potential for a further glass/steel framed structure at the northern end of the platform which would connect through a commercial development to Broadway. An air-bridge will connect the main concourse/Station Square through to the current access point from Remuera Road. ”

So it sounds like if this goes ahead it will be linked into the Newmarket station which would mean that there will be 3 entrances to the station, c.f. the previous 1 entrance off Remuera Rd.

My question is – who sold off the air rights? It must have been a lot of money as that’s a substantial amount of ‘land’ in a very prime part of the city. I’ve never heard/seen any numbers about what Equinox paid for the rights which suggests to be it was sold off by TranzRail prior to the government buying the rail system back.

Those lovely swiss gentlemen Messers Fay and Richwhite; after the [National] government had given them entire nations rail network on the cheap to plunder. Were later convicted of fraud [or settled i think] as they boosted the apparent value of Tranz Rail by hocking land [including much of Newmarket- how tight that station is] failing to repair the network at all, then quitting out of the stock with their American partners just before it dived.

Ah privatisation, what a fantastic idea it is, really ought to be more popular…

PS building above looking rather dated too. There already is a huge amount of parking on ex-railway land next to this site. Council should be trying to limit it.

Folks, whats the story with the empty land next to Grafton Station (cnr Khyber Pass and Park Rds). Who owns rhat and what are the plans for building there?

Lets hope this 88 building does go ahead with decent acess to/from Newmarket station. Up here in Japan, station connected buildings do extremely well…especially those with supermarkets/department stores in them.

The site should be in the Newmarket Plan Change 196 area as far as I can remember – so while the District Plan does not (at least not without further negotiations) allow them to dispense with ALL car parking, the parking minimum requirements in Newmarket are now A LOT lower than they used to be.